Swatch and Bulgari may not be in buyout talks (see yesterday’s MO Down), but they have us (and the rest of the world) pondering other merger and acquisition (M&A) options and hypotheticals in the luxury industry.We found an excellent Reuters article that provided a detailed overview of the current state of M&As, which shows some European brands have already been sold to buyers from emerging markets, including Asian companies or wealthy individuals.
We found this comment particularly interesting: "Another contributing factor to an M&A pick-up is the weaker euro which should make European brands more attractive to foreign buyers, particularly from regions such as China, Japan, India, Russia and the Middle East”, according to M&A advisers.
Another thought-provoking insight was that, “Potential buyers in China want to get a share of the big profits European luxury companies make by selling products in their fast-growing home market, while Japanese buyers are looking to tap regions outside their stagnant economy.”
Some of the M&As we’ve already explored on the MO Down include:
• The resurrection of German brand MCM (formerly known as Michael Cromer Munich) by Korean business woman Sung Joo Kim. Click here to read our earlier report.
• German brand Escada was bought by Megha Mittal, the daughter-in-law of ArcelorMittal Chief Executive Lakshmi Mittal. Click here for more details.
We must also note that Lanvin, the iconic French brand that has had a wonderful rejuvenation in recent years thanks to the creative director Alber Elbaz, is owned by a holding company Arpege SAS. The majority owner, Shaw-Lan Wang, a Taiwanese media magnate, found a silent partner in November 2009 to assist in further growing the company and hopefully keeping the other luxury conglomerates at bay for a while... so there’s no hostile takeover in sight right now.
Image credit: http://afii.net/CorporateAdvisory/Images/m&A.jpg
